April 7, 2011

When I saw the news about the Southwest Airlines airplane and the hole in its roof, I knew it would be good for a cartoon. I had one idea of a passenger, a guy maybe, with his head sticking out of the hole and a cigarette in his mouth saying, "Finally, a place to smoke," but it wasn't at all political and there's too much going on in politics right now that need to be addressed.

The Republicans are doing their time-honored schtick of balancing the budget on the backs of the poor and elderly. Instead of easing their financial burden, the GOP will add to it while protecting their benefactors, the rich, from a fair tax rate.

Why this country continues to tolerate the inequities between the rich and the middle class is beyond me. I'll never understand how the working stiffs in America can possibly be members of the Republican Party at this dark, dark time in national politics. I guess the elephant knows what buttons to push with frightened people. If you're terrified of terror, an anti-abortion, evangelical Christian who hates gay marriage, and think prayer in school will solve everything, I guess that's all that matters. The fact that Republicans always do things that are not in the interests of the working man doesn't enter into the equation. Style triumphs over substance.

Stop by the Mark Twain House and Museum to see my exhibit of original editorial cartoon art. "Drawing Fire: Bob Englehart's 30 years at TheCourant." It's free and will be up through May. For more information, call the Mark Twain House and Museum at 860-247-0998. As long as you're there, take a tour!

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22 Comments

Ok. Malloy says we all need to feel the pain. The GOP is trying to cut government on a federal level. Where would you cut or make changes to balance the budget? Or do you think we can keep going along our merry way and sustain this nonsense?

We are on the ship titanic and to quote the illustrious Malloy we all need to feel the pain!

We need to start somewhere. My family has been making sacrifices for several years. Now is the time for the government to do the same!

While the rest of the word is fighting for their freedom, we are surrendering ours!

The GOP's aim is a 2-class country: an Aristocracy and a Proletariat. The trick is to eliminate public education, cripple the government and strip the resources from the middle class by funneling it to the rich with tax cuts, while at the same time convince the now unemployed lower (former middle) class it's what they want. Hey, it worked in 1917 Russia, right?

My retired parents think the Tea Party is the greatest thing, so long as their Social Security and Medicare doesn't get touched. Wait'll they find out the hard truth for themselves - they don't believe me. I'm just hoping they're not asking to move in when they realize they can't afford their rent anymore.

I have seen high school political cartoons that are better made, more professional, and free of bias. We get it Bob...you are liberal, and Republicans have never done anything right...thankfully you are here to set everyone straight!

If Republicans are "the party of the rich," how come "the rich" elect Democrats? While the first half of the question is conventional wisdom, the second half is congressional fact. At the risk of letting facts get in the way of a good story, here they insist on showing exactly the opposite of what most people think.

According to calculations of states' average incomes, those states with the highest average overwhelmingly elect Democrats to Congress. This iconoclastic insight was underscored by a recent USA Today ranking of the states by their population's average income.

The top five states in the ranking were: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York. Together these five states have 8 Democratic senators (and 1 Independent and 1 Republican) and 48 Democratic House members (and 16 Republicans).

The starkness of the contrast is evidenced by Congress's current configuration. The Senate has just a 53-47 Democratic majority, while the House has a 241-192 Republican majority.

Not only does the theory that the rich elect Republicans ring false, just the opposite prevails. The bottom five states in the listing were Mississippi, Idaho, Utah, West Virginia, and Arkansas. Together these five states have 7 Republican senators (and 3 Democrats) and 12 Republican House members (and 4 Democrats).

So, the highest per capita income states had an 80% Democratic Senate ratio and 75% Democratic House ratio; while, the states with the lowest per capita income had a 70% Republican Senate ratio and a 75% Republican House ratio.

Facts, it is said, are stubborn things. But they are nothing compared to "conventional wisdom." In this case it mulishly maintains "conventional" at the expense of "wisdom." Conventional wisdom is not simply wrong in its oversimplification, it is "loud wrong."

Being a leftist libral is cool if you are in your teens living in your parents' basement...until you get on your feet...what's your excuse Bob? No wonder the Courant and newspapers are swimming in red ink!

How cruel of you, Jim I. "I'm just hoping they're not asking to move in when they realize they can't afford their rent anymore". Just throw them into the streets to starve, die of loneliness and denial from a once-loved son. Your children will, no doubt, learn from your example and do the same for you. Bless their pea-pickin' selfish hearts! You are certainly a fine example of Neanderthal thinking!

Bob, Your parents are much like mine. Mine had low salary jobs at Pratt. Both avoided the union. Both voted Republican although I could clearly point out to them how they were voting against their interests.

In part, my parents voted as they did out of family tradition but I also expect that the Republican platform of fear and greed triggered a justification of their prejudices (e.g.,I am paying for illiterate, unemployed, colored, non-Christian illegals to sponge free medical care. These people aren't deserving real Americans).

The Republicans do a great job pitting worker against worker, raising jealousy, directing frustration.
In doing so, preserving and even increasing the status of the rich.

And, an even better job of spinning the economic news. The message is clearly that the effects of the recession can be blamed on the excesses of the Obama Administration. The problem is overspending (i.e. Obamacare), not under taxing. Keep the attention away from the incomes of the rich, the 400 who own half of this country's wealth, and large companies such as GE which earned 14 billion world wide, paid no taxes, and might get a 4 billion dollar government handout: corporate welfare at its most sinister.

Yeah, the problem is that greedy $60,000-a-year state union worker who selfishly wants a decent health plan or retirement package that he legitimately negotiated.

If the common man accepts this inhumane Republican budget reduction plan as sensible, then the people are as stupid as accused.

Just more of the same from the Democratic playbook which is really getting tiresome. As soon as the Republicans mention the word budget, the Reids, Pelosis, Larsens and of course good ol Bob E. startup the babys are going to die, the seniors are going to die, the rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer and on and on it goes. Such original thinking !

Tomorrow's cartoon should be the Democrat's plane nose diving into the ground because that's where we are heading with the "spending money we do not have" Democrat plan (the Democrat's didn't have the guts to even pass a budget). I'm not rich, but I pay way beyond my fair share in this state! Stop sharing the wealth and start spreading a stronger work ethic!

On Sunday, Chris Wallace interviewed Paul Ryan. He asked Ryan about feeding the Democrats attack material when the legislation has no chance of passing in the Senate.

Ryan's response was that people would have to "lie and demagogue" in order to use his budget against him. He then listed some of the lies he expected to hear, and refuted them with specific aspects of the legislation.

Of course the lies Ryan predicted quickly came, and the legislation itself instantaneously exposes the lies being told by leading Democrats.

No matter, Bob an his ilk learned long ago that most people will not research the lies they tell and draw.

Since you claim to know the "hard truth" about the ill fate of your currently retired parents at the hands of the Tea Party, why don't you inform the rest of us. Please include specific factual information and sources.

Assuming your parents retired over the age of 55, Paul Ryan's budget has ZERO effect on them. That is an irrefutable, spelled out fact that is clearly established in the Ryan budget proposal. The Tea Party has not offered a budget proposal, so Ryan's is all you have to complain about.

This cartoon reminds me of the old joke about the news media 'world to end tomorrow, women and minorities hit hardest'. The democratic playbook strikes again, everytime there is talk of change, on anything, the democrats roll out a variation of this cartoons message. If we don't get our spending under control, we will end up like Greece. The government has no money. Bringing spending back to 2008 levels doesn't seem to draconian to me.

johngaltwhereru - If it's true what you say that the tea party has not offered a budget proposal, please let John Boehner know, lest he's confused about where his marching orders come from. As to my parents, TT, they felt no compunction about my having to be self-supportive before finishing my college years - I didn't say I wouldn't take them in, just that I hoped they wouldn't ask.

To the rest of you conservative patsies, I know you hate to hear this, but thanks to Obama's policies the economy is starting to turn around, in spite of corporate desertion of the U.S. courtesy of Republican efforts. I've seen more construction starts, want ads, restaurant patrons and local traffic lately, in spite of gas prices - all good signs that more taxpayers may be appearing to offset some of the Bush deficit. If you don't want to believe that, be my guest to continue wallowing in your self-depressed morass.

Bob,
According to The Tax Foundation, the bottom 50% (<$33,048) of the Adjusted Gross Income spectrum, pay 2.8% of total taxes at an average tax rate of 2.6% and earn 12.8% of total AGI. On the other hand, the top 10% ($113,799+) pay 70% of total taxes at an average tax rate of 18.7% and earn 46% of total AGI. Looks to me as if “the poor” are paying very little and it is the financially successful bearing financial burdens.

Being “elderly” is primarily issues of mortality and morbidity and not economics. If one saved and invested wisely during their employment years, financial independence is attainable. Of course, if you combine extreme longevity with numerous chronic illnesses there will be problems. The key is accepting personal responsibility- a concept foreign to leftist bobble-heads.

“In the last ten years our wars have been paid for by borrowing,” Franken said. “The Iraq War was accompanied by a massive tax cut. That failed fiscal experiment created the impression that war requires no financial sacrifice. We know that is just not true. The question is who will bear the financial sacrifice, the generation that has decided to go to war or its children and grandchildren?”

Paying for war sure beats being in the middle of one wondering if you can survive it.

johngaltwhereru - No, actually the economy started to falter in 2002 with the fraudulent Iraq/Afghan invasions and foolhardy nations building costing trillions that were surreptitiously kept off budget. Then the Bush Admin. failure to rein in Freddie & Fannie made the mortgage fiasco a certainty, followed by the inevitable housing market/banking collapse.

Your 2005 "full employment" rate is supported by borrowed money on borrowed time, and ultimately has no place to go except to a downward plummet, especially with corporations getting Bush era tax incentives to move to China. It's common knowledge the employment rate is the last statistic affected by the economy, and always lags a few years. Consequently it will take a few years time for it to reflect the recovery.

The economy train wreck happened under Bush's watch, then Obama stopped an inevitable fiasco and actually started reversing it in a short 2-3 years. Republicans are depending on the public's short-term memory to muddle the facts and try to turn the blame around to Democrats, as your inept post amply demonstrates. Fortunately, there are plenty of us who remember the facts accurately and won't let you get away with it.

You are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. At least outside an institutional setting.

The NBER is the recognized authority on business cycles. In the last 11 years, they recognize two Economic Contractions,3/01 to 11/01 and 12/07 to 6/09. From 1854 to 2009, there have been 33 business cycles-they are clearly not events of Democratic or Republican making.

One characteristic of socialistic economies is high structural unemployment. Compare and contrast Western Europe with Japan.

High structural unemployment is the "inevitable fiasco" caused by Owe Bomb Em and his fellow leftist bobble-heads.

Unfortunately, GDP and employment numbers are hard facts, and everything you wrote is hard opinion.

As for your 2002 date as the start of economic collapse, what explains the financial success of the time leading up to 2002? It seems those evil Republicans had been in control of budget matters for 7 years leading up to 2002.
Perhaps it was the brilliant economic policies of Jimmy Carter catching up with your convienient lag times.

johngaltwhereru: If I read your post correctly, you suggest that 3 Republican presidents and one conservative Democratic president, along with a prevalently Republican controlled Congress were unable to alter Carter's economic policies over the last 30 years.

Poverty In Our Cities: note the City, State and percent of people below the Poverty Level:
1. Detroit, MI 32.5%
2. Buffalo, NY 29.9%
3. Cincinnati, OH 27.8%
4. Cleveland, OH 27.0%
5. Miami, FL 26.9%
6. St.Louis, MO 26.8%
7. El Paso, TX 26.4%
8. Milwaukee, WI 26.2%
9. Philadelphia, PA 25.1%
10. Newark, NJ 24.2%
(Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, 2006, American Community Survey, August 2007). What do the top ten cities (population over 250,000 with the highest poverty rate) all have in common? Detroit, MI (first on the poverty rate list) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961; Buffalo, NY (2nd) hasn't elected one since 1954; Cincinnati, OH (3rd),since 1984; Cleveland, OH (4th), since 1989; Miami, FL (5th) has never had a Republican mayor; St. Louis, MO 6th, since 1949; El Paso, TX (7th) has never had a Republican mayor; Milwaukee, WI (8th), since 1908; Philadelphia , PA (9th), since 1952; Newark, NJ (10th), since 1907. It is the poor who habitually elect Democrats yet they are still POOR "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves." Abraham Lincoln.

No, you do not read my post correctly. The Carter comment was sarcasm in response to the mental gymnastics you performed to come to the conclusion that Obama's economic policies have created a recovery.

Why no reply to the long string of Democrats fighting regulation of Fannie and Freddie? Please note that video did not include a 2005 floor speach by McCain imploring Congress to regulate the GSEs while Barney Frank claimed there was nothing wrong with Fannie and Freddie, and even if there was, the Federal Government would never bail them out. That can be found on youtube. Enjoy!